Samsung starts mass production of first 4-bit consumer SSDs

Samsung starts mass production of first 4-bit consumer SSDs

Posted August. 08, 2018 07:14,

Updated August. 08, 2018 07:14

Samsung starts mass production of first 4-bit consumer SSDs.
August. 08, 2018 07:14.
by Tae-Ho Hwang taeho@donga.com.
Samsung Electronics said on Tuesday that it has started mass production of 4-bit solid state drive (SSD), which has 33 percent larger storage capacity than the existing 3-bit products, for the first time in the world. It has been six years since the South Korean tech giant launched 3-bit SSDs in 2012.

The 4-bit (QLC, quad-level cell) SSD stores four bits of data within a memory cell. It can greatly increase the storage capacity as more data can be stored within a memory cell. But the number of data a memory cell needs to handle increases from 8 to 16, which requires state-of-the-art technologies to maintain performance and speed.

Samsung’s new 4-bit SSD is a 4-terabyte (TB) SSD, the largest in the industry, which is based on 32 1-terabit (Tb) V-NAND chips. It is capable of storing as many as 750 5 GB full-HD movies at a time including the operating memory. This high performance SSD, which got smaller in size, boasts a similar level of speed (about 10 seconds per a movie) with the exiting 3-bit (TLC) SSD.

Samsung Electronics’ new 4-bit consumer SSDs, which will be launched within the year, will come in the 2.5-inch SATA format, available in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities.

Samsung Electronics said on Tuesday that it has started mass production of 4-bit solid state drive (SSD), which has 33 percent larger storage capacity than the existing 3-bit products, for the first time in the world. It has been six years since the South Korean tech giant launched 3-bit SSDs in 2012.

The 4-bit (QLC, quad-level cell) SSD stores four bits of data within a memory cell. It can greatly increase the storage capacity as more data can be stored within a memory cell. But the number of data a memory cell needs to handle increases from 8 to 16, which requires state-of-the-art technologies to maintain performance and speed.

Samsung’s new 4-bit SSD is a 4-terabyte (TB) SSD, the largest in the industry, which is based on 32 1-terabit (Tb) V-NAND chips. It is capable of storing as many as 750 5 GB full-HD movies at a time including the operating memory. This high performance SSD, which got smaller in size, boasts a similar level of speed (about 10 seconds per a movie) with the exiting 3-bit (TLC) SSD.

Samsung Electronics’ new 4-bit consumer SSDs, which will be launched within the year, will come in the 2.5-inch SATA format, available in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities.